The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives in Kafue district says only 13,000 bags of maize have been purchased from farmers in the area out of the allocated figure of 46,000 to be bought by the Food Reserve Agency(FRA).
Kafue District Agriculture Coordinator John Hikanyemu has however expressed worry at the delay by the FRA to pay for the maize on time as indicated at the start of the exercise.
He says the delay in paying for the maize by FRA is discouraging farmers from bringing maize to the agency.
Mr. Hikanyemu said today in Kafue during a stakeholders meeting held in the office of the District Commissioner that the district has been subdivided into two zones namely Kafue and Lusaka west zones.
He said the five cooperatives sheds have been identified in Kafue whilst three are in Lusaka west.
Mr. Hikanyemu told the meeting which was also attended by District Commissioner Winford Ngoma that there was need for FRA to work out a fast paying mechanism unlike what was happening now.
He said whilst the district may have other buyers of the commodity, many farmers were more comfortable with government.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Agriculture says 10,500 small scale farmers are expected to benefit under this year’s fertilizer Support Programme.
He said the criteria of selecting beneficiaries will be done through respective agriculture block offices.
Mr. Hikanyemu said the process of scrutinizing cooperatives in the district has started so that no fake groups benefited from the programme.
Meanwhile, .Omnia Zambia Limited has started delivering farming inputs for the 2009/2010 farming season in Kafue district.
A check by ZANIS at the Omnia shed in Kafue today found trucks offloading 50kg bags of urea fertilizer.
Depot Manager Jones Musanya told ZANIS in an interview that the company has been assigned to deliver 814 metric tonnes of top dressing fertilizer and another 814 metric tonnes of basal dressing to Kafue district under this year’s fertilizer support programme.
He said the company is also to deliver 8,140 by 10 kg bags of seed to the district.
Mr. Musanya disclosed that a total of 8,790 bags of urea have since been delivered to the warehouse in readiness for this year’s farming season.
He was optimistic that the company would complete the exercise of delivering inputs to the warehouse in the next two months.
Mr. Musanya however expressed worry that the distribution of D compound fertilizer may be delayed because Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia has not yet started production of the fertilizer.
He said at the moment the company was only stocking up top dressing fertilizer and had been told to wait for the D compound which is expected to come from NCZ.
ZANIS
ZANIS
maize is becoming unprofitable because of the politics attached to it. I fore see a situation where farmers will switch to other profitable crops thus causing a maize shortage.
Why aren’t silos being built as a matter of urgency???? IOU credit notescould be given to the farmers if there is no money to give them immediately? Zambians farmers are trying to make a living they should be rewarded for their hardwork. If the govt can raise $50,000 to evict monkeys from state house. Surely ….the ministry of agriculture can build Silos to prevent maize shortage. Maybe they can borrow money from the Chiluba’s Zamtroop account to build silos and pay these farmers???What is the objective of the Ministry of Agriculture if they can not even buy maize from farmers. These farmers would pay tax on the revenue, stimulate the economy, we could export the maize if we have excess. Please do not let this maize rot due to lack of effective and efficient management
hello. how can we contact the FRA? is there a telephone number or email address with a contact person?